Dividing Line

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Dividing Line Page 37

by Heather Atkinson


  “Okay okay I'm putting it down. Just take it easy,” says Danny.

  “Danny don't,” she says.

  “It's alright Rach. Don't worry,” Danny says as he slowly puts the gun on the floor.

  “Kick it over here,” orders Terry.

  Danny obeys. Terry pushes Rachel over and Danny catches her in his arms. He grabs a tea towel and wraps it around her injured forearm. Terry snatches up the gun and points it at them.

  “Now I'll fucking kill you both.”

  Danny doesn’t flinch as he pulls the trigger and nothing happens. He clicks it again and again but nothing.

  “You didn't think I'd be stupid enough to give you a loaded gun, did you?” smirks Danny.

  With a bellow of rage Terry throws the gun to the floor and hurls himself at Danny, who shoves Rachel out of the way and the two men fall to the floor, fighting. Danny punches Terry and the knife goes skidding across the floor. Jake smashes one of the wine glasses and goes after Rachel. She grabs the champagne bottle and brings it down on the hand holding the broken glass. She hears the crack of bone and Jake screeches in agony, letting the glass drop and clutches at his injured limb. She hits him round the back of the head and he falls to the floor, unconscious.

  In the meantime Danny kicks Terry off him, grabs him by the hair and smashes his head repeatedly against the edge of the dining table, knocking him unconscious. As he catches his breath Danny reaches his hand out to Rachel but Terry suddenly sits bolt upright, snatches up the broken glass dropped by Jake and jams it into Danny's thigh. With the other hand he snatches up the knife he dropped in the fight and with no other weapon to hand Danny yanks the glass out of his thigh.

  “No don't pull it out,” screams Rachel.

  Blood spurts out of Danny's thigh, drenching Rachel. He manages to jam the glass into Terry's chest before collapsing to the floor, letting the knife drop. Terry roars in agony, his shirt instantly soaking with blood but Rachel ignores him as she flies to Danny's side. The blood is bright red and spurts out with each beat of his heart. She feels the warmth of it on her skin as it soaks her and congeals into a sticky mess. She clamps her hand over the wound but the blood still pours out of him and he goes into shock. She knows he will be dead in a few minutes if she doesn't do something.

  “This is going to hurt Babe.”

  She grabs a fresh tea towel and hastily twists it into a tourniquet. Then she positions it above the injury and pulls it as tight as she can. He cries out in pain but instantly the blood loss is stilled. Mercifully Danny passes out, she can't imagine the pain he must be experiencing. Terry lies on the floor, struggling to breathe, the glass in his chest rising and falling with each ragged intake of breath but she continues to pay him no mind. Tears pour down Rachel's face as she grabs the phone and calls an ambulance and the police. She sits beside her husband as she waits for help to come and checks his pulse intermittently, which is very slow. Her vision swims and she shakes her head to clear it. She has lost quite a bit of blood herself from the arm wound and she feels weak. Rachel struggles to keep conscious, the dizziness beginning to overwhelm her as the shock kicks in and it takes all of her willpower to stay awake. As the paramedics burst into the room only then does she allow the blackness to overtake her.

  Rachel comes round in the ambulance to find herself laid out on a stretcher, a makeshift bandage on her arm. She can feel the movement of the ambulance, hear the wail of the siren as it tears through the city streets. She sits up on her elbows to see Danny on the stretcher beside her unconscious, his leg elevated above the level of his heart. The paramedic tending him has intubated him and the wound on his leg has been dressed with a large pad. She is shocked to see the blueness of his fingertips and lips.

  “How is he?” she says anxiously.

  Her heart sinks at the look on the paramedic’s face, who she knows from her time at the hospital. “His pulse is very slow and he's gone into haemorrhagic shock.”

  Her eyes fill with tears. Haemorrhagic shock means that the patient has lost so much blood that the body's ability to function is impaired, which in turn means that the chance of a recovery is reduced significantly. She can feel his blood all over her; on her face, her hands, even in her hair, mingled with her own and she realises there is a good chance he won’t survive this.

  She grasps his hand, his skin frighteningly cold and clammy. The journey to the hospital seems to take forever but finally they pull up outside the accident and emergency department, the doors are flung open and they are racing inside. She refuses to let go of his hand until she absolutely has to. At the theatre doors a nurse holds her back.

  “I'm sorry, you can't go in.”

  Tears pour down her face as the doors to the theatre close in her face. She is taken to a cubicle to have her arm attended to, steered there by the kindly nurse. Everything feels so surreal and dream-like and she allows herself to be led, the vision of Danny bleeding on their kitchen floor the only thing she can see. She doesn't even notice the shocked looks she gets from passers-by, forgetting that she is covered in blood. She doesn’t feel it when the doctor begins stitching up her arm. Suddenly Mikey is there beside her and she doesn't know who called him. They clean the blood off her face and hands and tell her no tendons have been severed but she will be left with a scar. However she doesn't care, nothing matters anymore because there is a good chance Danny is not going to come out of that operating theatre alive.

  Mikey takes her to the Relative's Room where Alex and Martina wait, who are shocked by her appearance. They ask her what happened and she answers mechanically without really thinking about what she’s saying. Their voices recede into the background as she sits staring at the floor. All she can focus on is Danny. She's only just got him back and now she has to face the possibility of losing him again but this time for good. It is almost too much for her to bear. They'd not even had the chance to enjoy married life yet.

  “She's in shock,” says Martina, indicating Rachel. “Why did they discharge her so quickly?”

  “She insisted on it,” replies Mikey. “She wanted to be here for Danny.”

  Martina nods in understanding. “I can't believe all this. If someone had told me Terry would do this to the family I would have thought they were mad. Where is he now anyway?”

  “Him and Jake are both here, under armed guard of course,” says Alex.

  “Jesus Christ we should be given our own ward, the amount of business we’ve given them,” sighs Martina.

  “Jake's got a broken arm and Terry‘s in surgery, some sort of injury to his chest,” replies Alex.

  “Danny pulled the glass Terry stuck him with out of his leg and stabbed him with it,” explains Rachel quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor.

  “He what?” says Martina, appalled.

  Rachel raises her eyes and Martina is disconcerted by how black they are, black with anger and fear. “He had no choice. Terry was coming at him with a knife. It was the only thing he could do.”

  Martina is overwhelmed with the horror of it. She regards Rachel with sympathy. The things this poor girl had seen. Martina sits beside her and pulls her into a hug. Rachel rests her head on her shoulder and silent tears roll down her cheeks.

  “I wish Terry and Jake had both died,” says Martina. “They killed my husband then they try and take one of my sons and my daughter-in-law.”

  “Benton's charging them with breaking and entering and attempted murder,” replies Mikey. “If Terry survives he'll be going down for a long time.”

  “I hope they throw away the key. I never want to clap eyes on either of them again.”

  When Rachel’s parents enter the room Gillian releases a shriek of horror at the blood covering her daughter. This rouses Rachel from her stupor.

  “What happened?” she cries, taking Rachel in her arms.

  Martina cringes. She had hoped Beth would have returned before now with fresh clothes for Rachel, she didn't want her parents to see her like this. Martina stares a
t the blood, her child's blood and feels sick to her stomach. There is so much of it. She forces back the tears, refusing to give into the pain now. She has to be strong for them all.

  “What happened?” demands Gillian again, louder this time and they all look away from her.

  “Tell them,” says Rachel, looking at Alex. She feels they have a right to know.

  Alex nods, takes a deep breath and relates every gory detail to them. He tells them everything, right from the beginning. They stare at him with their mouths hanging open and when he’s finished they look at the floor, struggling to make sense of it all. Gillian and Rick see their daughter in a new light and both are slightly repelled by her. Stiffly Rick puts an arm around Rachel’s shoulders and she leans into him but he is unable to comfort her as he should because he’s afraid she will contaminate him. He is relieved when Beth returns with Rachel’s clean clothes.

  “Sorry I took so long. I got collared by Benton. He wants to talk to you Rach but I told him you’re in no fit state. He's going to come back later.”

  “You did right sweetheart,” says Alex, taking Beth's hand and sitting her down beside him. Recent experience has taught him to appreciate the people in his life because they can so easily be taken from you. It has also made him realise that there is no way he is going to let this woman slip away from him. She smiles at him and he is so glad she’s here.

  “I'll go and get changed,” says Rachel, getting to her feet.

  “Do you want me to come with you?” offers Beth.

  “No thanks. I could do with some time on my own.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Rachel is appalled by her appearance, no wonder she's been getting odd looks. She’s caked in congealed blood, Danny's blood. She relives the moment he pulled the glass out of his leg and the blood shot out of the wound. The now familiar sensation of sickness and fear threatens to overwhelm her so she splashes her face with cold water, breathing heavily. He's been in surgery for two hours already. If he has the strength to survive that then he might have the strength to pull through. She has to focus on him getting better, it’s all that’s keeping her from completely breaking down.

  Rachel changes her clothes, dumping her old ones in a clinical waste bin so they can be incinerated.

  When she returns to the Relative's Room the surgeon is already there and she is relieved to see it is Mr De Souza, the most respected and talented Vascular Surgeon in the city. He is a kind hearted man standing well over six feet tall with hands like shovels that move with incredible dexterity. She looks up at him with large scared eyes.

  “Rachel, the surgery went well. We managed to repair the artery. He's stable at the moment.”

  Relief washes over her and she has to hold onto a chair to steady herself.

  “However, we had to give him a transfusion. He lost three pints of blood.”

  The relief evaporates. As Rachel glances at Beth she can see her fear reflected in her friend’s eyes.

  “How many pints do people have?” says Martina.

  “Between eight and ten, depending on the size of the individual. Someone Danny's size probably has nine,” replies the surgeon grimly.

  Rachel stares at the floor so no one sees the look in her eyes.

  Mr De Souza regards her sympathetically. “Rachel, you saved his life. If you hadn't applied that tourniquet he would have died in minutes. You did well, really well.”

  “Can we see him?” she says.

  “He's unconscious at the moment but I can allow one of you in.”

  Martina and Rachel look at each other.

  “You go,” says Martina.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. When he comes round I know you'll be the one he wants to see.”

  Rachel swallows hard and nods her thanks.

  “We're just getting him settled,” says Mr De Souza. “I'll send a nurse for you when he's ready.”

  “Thank you, so much,” says Rachel sincerely, shaking his hand.

  Mr De Souza nods and leaves the room.

  “What was all that about blood loss?” says Martina tentatively, not sure she wants to hear the answer.

  Rachel's voice is solemn and quiet. “It means he's lost a dangerous amount of blood.”

  “But he can still recover, can't he?” says Martina, looking from Rachel to Beth, unable to hold back her tears any longer.

  Beth forces herself to smile reassuringly. “Course he can. He's healthy and strong. He can survive this.”

  Everyone else seems reassured by Beth's words, even if Rachel isn't.

  A nurse arrives to escort Rachel to Danny's room. She has a sense of de ja vu; it’s just like the time he was stabbed. He is laid on the bed, eyes closed and very pale, linked up to an array of tubes and drips, the familiar sound of the heart monitor a regular and reassuring beep in the background. She sits by his side and holds his hand, which is cold. Gently she rubs it between her own hands in an attempt to warm it up. This time she doesn't look at his chart, afraid of what she will see there.

  There is a timid knock at the door.

  “Come in,” calls Rachel.

  Lucy steps into the room and Rachel manages to give her a weak smile.

  “How is he?” says Lucy.

  Rachel looks down at Danny's pale face to hide her tears. “Not good.”

  “Are you sure he deserves your pity, after what he did?”

  Rachel knows she is referring to Amanda Moore and she shakes her head. “He didn't sleep with her. Amanda made it up. End of.”

  Lucy detects the finality in her voice and decides not to press the issue. She’d attended to Amanda after Rachel had put her in the hospital and she doesn't want a taste of the same.

  “I came to tell you about Terry,” says Lucy, anxious to change the subject.

  “Yeah?”

  “He's come out of surgery but he's not regained consciousness yet. He has a lot of internal damage and to be honest his surgeon's not that hopeful of a recovery. It could go either way. He's in a private room on ward three.”

  Rachel is grateful for this snippet of information. “Thanks Lucy. I appreciate it.”

  When she looks back down at her husband, Lucy realises she is being dismissed so she slips out of the door, grateful to be out of that room. The coldness radiating off Rachel unnerved her. She no longer recognises her one-time colleague.

  Rachel surmises she must have fallen asleep with her head on the bed because the next thing she knows Danny's hand is stroking her hair.

  “Danny,” she whispers, almost crying with relief. She perches on the edge of the bed and kisses him gently. His face is still extremely pale but the scariest thing for Rachel is that his beautiful blue eyes have lost all their sparkle. They are pale and empty. “How are you feeling?”

  “Horrible. I need a drink.”

  She pours him a glass of water and sticks a straw in it.

  “I'm not five,” he croaks.

  “It's standard practice after major surgery. You're too uncoordinated to manage a glass. Now stop moaning and drink,” she says with a gentle smile.

  He takes a sip and sinks back into the pillows, this simple act exhausting him.

  “Better?”

  He nods.

  “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Bits. Terry stabbed me.” His voice is extremely faint and she has to strain to hear him.

  “Yes. He penetrated the femoral artery and you lost a lot of blood. They had to give you a transfusion but they managed to repair the artery.”

  “Am I going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, course you are,” she smiles reassuringly.

  “Rach, tell me the truth.” He looks at her intently and she knows she can't lie.

  “You lost so much blood.”

  “I'm not out of the woods yet, am I?”

  “No but you survived the surgery and you're here talking to me now.” She grips his hand tightly. “You're strong. You will pull through.”

  He gives h
er a small smile. “Yeah.”

  Rachel is more than aware of the possible post-operative complications. That is the problem with having medical training, you know exactly what can go wrong, even when everything seems to be going right.

  He leans back into the pillows and screws his eyes tight shut. His body is bathed in sweat and his breathing is laboured. She recognises that he's in agony and is trying to put on a brave face.

  “You need some pain relief?”

  He nods, glad she has divined his thoughts. Rachel presses the call button and a minute later a middle aged shiny faced nurse enters the room.

  “Good to see you awake Danny,” she says cheerily. “The consultant asked me to let him know when you're awake. He'll want to see you.”

  “Okay,” replies Danny dopily as the pain relief kicks in.

  They wait until the nurse has left before resuming their conversation.

  “Where's Jake and Terry?” says Danny.

  “Jake’s in police custody and Terry's here. He's had surgery too.

  “And?”

  She repeats what Lucy told her.

  His eyes blaze and she is heartened by the sight. He grasps her hand tightly, his face earnest. “You need to finish it Rach. I can't now. You have to.”

  The bleep of the heart monitor speeds up with his anxiety.

  “It's okay, it's okay,” she soothes, stroking his face. “Don't worry. I know what to do.”

  He sinks back into the pillows, breathing hard.

  “I need to see Alex. He has to be the one.”

  She frowns. “You sure?”

  “Yeah. It'll be his test.”

  “He's waiting outside with the rest of the family.”

  “Send them in. It's important I speak to Alex.”

  “Why don't you let me explain?”

  His eyes fill with sadness. “I need to do it. I have to know for sure.”

  She nods in understanding. “I'll get them. Your mum will come in though. There’s not a force on earth capable of stopping her.”

  He smiles weakly, struggling to keep his eyes open. “Rach, will you stay here with me tonight?”

 

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